Sony’s eco-friendly packaging initiatives have innovated the way we get our devices. From development of plastic materials, to switching the way they package existing products, they’re on their way to their plastic-free goals.
In this week’s blog post, we’re taking a look at Sony’s eco-friendly packaging initiatives. Read on to find out more!
Developing Recycled Plastics
Sony has been developing plastic made from “unpigmented industrial scrap from automobile parts”. After sorting and turning the carps into pellets, the plastic material becomes parts for various products. This sorting process lets Sony use a larger amount of recycled material in their plastics, including black material.
In cooperation with partner companies, we have newly developed a recycled ABS that allows a variety of colouring without the addition of virgin plastic by precisely sorting unpigmented ABS [acrylonitrile butadiene styrene] scrap material by colour.
Makoto Kawabata, Sony Corporation
These plastics are now in use in several parts of smaller Sony products, including the WH-1000XM5 and a couple of LinkBuds models. As development of recycled plastic material continues, Sony hopes to incorporate it more in the future!
Original Blended Material
In addition to the recycled plastics they’re using, Sony uses an original blended material that is made completely of paper fibres. This material includes sugarcane and bamboo fibres alongside post-consumer paper. Bamboo and sugarcane have shorter growth cycles by comparison to perennial trees, which reduces the amount of CO2 that they generate when cut down.
From the outer box to the cushioning they use, Sony has completely incorporated their Original Blended Material to their new headphone packaging. The design of the new packaging focuses on recyclability. They use fewer inks, opting instead for embossing for text. A fun fact? The paper material has no colouring since paper pulp generally has a grayish or off-white colouring, which Sony keeps for their new packaging.
The final product is uncoloured to retain an appealing organic look, in addition to offering safer handling and lower resource use.
Source: Sony
Other Recycled Packaging
The initiative to use more recycled material goes past just headphones. Aibo, Sony’s AI learning robotic pet now comes in a package of felt made of PET (polyethylene terephthalate) from bottles! By breaking down the PET bottles into a fibre and mixing it with a traditional wool textile, they can mould the felt to fit aibo perfectly.
Similar to the headphone packaging, the packaging doesn’t include colouring for an organic look, incorporating embossing for all text details. By 2025, Sony aims to package all new small products in their alternative materials. This is the
Paper Over Plastic
Especially with the upcoming plastic ban, making the switch from plastic to paper is imperative. Other than using recycled materials for their new packaging, Sony is starting to make the switch to paper too! For example, the wired earbuds were originally packaged mostly in plastic. Now, they come in paper packaging printed with a photo of the earbuds on the front.
But they didn’t just stop at making their packaging paper. Laminate film is present in the original folding cartons’ redesign, making them unrecyclable. To combat this, they made the switch to a recyclable UV varnish, increasing the packaging’s recyclability. Overall, these changes result in a major reduction of plastic use in Sony’s packaging–almost 90% less!
Sony’s eco-friendly packaging initiatives signal a transition of plastic-free innovation on a larger scale. This doesn’t mean that have to be a big corporation to make a plastic-free change though!
Here at LeKAC, we’re on a mission to provide eco-friendly packaging solutions. We offer a wide range of eco-friendly alternatives for all kinds of businesses! Want to learn more? Contact us today to find out how we can help you get started! Our knowledgeable Business Development Consultants can help make suggestions about what packaging would work best for your business.
